


Shaped by the Story

by still_lycoris



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Female Friendship, Gen, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-18
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-29 20:54:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12093234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/still_lycoris/pseuds/still_lycoris
Summary: Dawn really does think that Faith is the coolest babysitter she's ever had.





	Shaped by the Story

**Author's Note:**

  * For [igrockspock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/igrockspock/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Tell Me a Story](https://archiveofourown.org/works/339533) by [igrockspock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/igrockspock/pseuds/igrockspock). 
  * In response to a prompt by [igrockspock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/igrockspock/pseuds/igrockspock) in the [remixrevivalmadness2017](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/remixrevivalmadness2017) collection. 



Dawn’s got kind of a crush on Faith.

It’s not quite like all the fluttery butterflies she gets when she’s around Xander or some of the other boys she knows so maybe it’s not that kind of crush (though she doesn’t think she’d mind if it was.) But it’s still a thing. Faith’s just so super _cool_. She’s always laughing and tossing her hair and saying stuff that she’s probably not supposed to say. Dawn likes that. She’s sick of people _whispering_ around her, hiding stuff. Mom and Dad did it when they were getting divorced. Then they did it again when Buffy was getting into trouble. All hushed voices and murmuring and it you _knew_ it was something horrid even though you couldn’t hear the words. And then Buffy ran away and there was more of it; Mom on the phone to Dad, to Buffy’s friends, to her own friends. Always making sure Dawn didn’t know stuff, even though she knew what it was all like too because she was just as scared as Mom was.

Faith doesn’t do that though. Right from the first time she met Dawn, she talked to her like she was just another person. Like Dawn mattered.

Okay, she whispers with Buffy too, sometimes. But that’s different, that’s Slayer stuff and Dawn gets that. Sometimes, when she knew before Mom did, she and Buffy whispered. But at least they always made it sound like it fun sister-whispers. Not awkward, difficult, un-fun whispers.

No, Faith’s cool. And when Buffy has to go out and says Dawn is too young to be left on her own (and okay, maybe Dawn is a bit. Obviously, she’s really grown up but it _is_ Sunnydale ...) and she says she’ll call Faith, well, Dawn can’t help being excited about it. Although she’s not sure that Faith will really want to stay. Faith’s _way_ too cool to be a babysitter ...

But Faith says yes.

*

It’s an _awesome_ evening.

They play a pretty cool game of Life which Dawn wins (she’s pretty sure that Faith doesn’t let her win on purpose, Faith’s way too cool for that) and eat the ice cream _right_ from the carton, loads of it too. So much that Dawn actually feels a little bit sick, like maybe she should have stopped earlier but she doesn’t tell Faith that, cause Faith would never get queasy just from something like ice cream.

Faith rents them both a movie after that, something Dawn knows Mom would _never_ let her watch. The weird thing is that it’s actually a bit boring – okay, the swearing is a bit cool and she’s not seen anything with _that_ much blood before but the actual plot’s a bit dumb.

“How come the men never get totally naked?” she asks at the end and Faith snorts.

“Guess they think it’d ruin women’s little brains if they saw a dick and men aren’t interested in them,” she says.

“That’s not fair,” Dawn says. 

“Yeah, well, life isn’t,” Faith says, sounding all grown up and knowledgeable, like she’s really _been_ there and _seen_ it. Dawn nods to show she understands, even though she doesn’t quite. Mom says that life isn’t fair too but it’s usually when Dawn doesn’t want to wash up after dinner. It’s just not the same.

Faith’s so cool.

She gets a bit grumpy later though, not really like Mom or Buffy but suddenly talking about bedtime. Dawn doesn’t really fight it – actually, she’s kinda glad. She’s pretty sleepy – it’s after midnight after all and she’s meant to go to bed at half nine. Another way that Faith is really super-cool, she clearly knows Dawn’s old enough to work things out herself.

Her story is weird though. Really weird. It doesn’t really have en ending, it just kind of happens and stops. Dawn’s not used to stories like that. Mom’s stories are normal and Buffy’s ... well, Buffy’s are pretty weird actually, always have been, even before she was the Slayer. 

Faith’s wasn’t just weird though, it was sad. Like there was something missing there, something a bit lost that Dawn can’t really identify. It’s not just that there wasn’t an end (although there wasn’t), it’s that what there was felt sort of lost. Like, it _sounded_ cool and fun and awesome and yet it was a bit empty and lonely at the same time.

As Dawn lies there, beginning to get properly sleepy in the dark, she wonders if maybe Faith is like that sometimes. It’s stupid, cause Faith is really cool but at the same time ... Mom and Buffy can be boring sometimes but Dawn kind of knows her place. She knows that things are okay, that she can make it all work. That the story all comes together, once people say it out-loud.

Somewhere in the middle of thinking that, she falls asleep and she doesn’t really remember it in the morning.


End file.
